Fall 2012 Tu/Th History of Photography

I really enjoyed watching the film “A Trip To The Moon”. It was cool to actually be able to see the first science fiction film ever created. Most black and white films are old and boring but this one was very humorous and no one was talking. The film showed the many similarities and differences between photographic camera and film camera. I would consider this film to be one of the practices of early photography. The film shows you that the camera had to be placed in one spot to capture the whole video for a long period of time. Not really much movement of the camera but more of the actors. Just like in early photography, the photographer had to manipulate his images to show the actions of everyone that was moving around throughout the film. It takes more work to create a film then it does just to capture an image with a photographic camera.

In my opinion both Frank and Count’s photography were effective during the American society of the fifties about blacks and white. Frank’s photographs are based on the United State, hardship, everyday life and the segregation happening during that time. He took photographs based on the everyday life of the American’s; it’s basically what you will see on a regular everyday life. Frank traveled to certain parts of the United State taking photographs of random snapshot. Count’s photograph showed more details on the racial segregation. The photograph of Elizabeth and Hazel, September 4, 1957, showed great details, he capture the moment where Elizabeth (white) shouting at Hazel (black). You can see such hate and emotion on Elizabeth facial expression about having an African American going to her school. What made it more effective was the article; the details that were stated made me visual the scene like I was actually there. I felt Elizabeth pain through reading the article, which made me understand the racial segregation even more. Count’s photographs was based on two photos, which was an African American girl going to a White dominate school. Both photographers had successfully captured the truth of reality during the fifties, the hardship, everyday life and segregation. In conclusion both photographers showed powerful visual documents of social inequities in the American society of the fifties.

After reading the magazine and looking at the photograph I’m having doubts of Capa’s war photographs. I read a part in the article stating “Finally . . . a Republican officer told them he would detail some troops to go withCapa to some trenches nearby, and they would stage some manoeuvres for them to photograph.” This was base of the fact that the war did not have much action and that Capa and other complained to the Republican officers. Then I came across in reading this “Capt. Franks told me in conversation that the fact that the fingers are somewhat curled toward the palm clearly indicates that the man’s muscles have gone limp and that he is already dead. Hardly anyone faking death would ever know that such a hand position was necessary in order to make the photograph realistic.” In my opinion it is possible that Capa capture a photograph of a “fallen solider” 500,000 solider had died during that one year, there is a possibility that he came across one at the right time. Yet I do have doubts how long does it takes for a person be dead? After that solider being shot in the head while falling back Capa capture the photograph he was already dead? Dealing with the fact that his finger are curled up within that few second that Capa had capture the photograph leave me in doubt that the photograph isn’t staged. Maybe there was a reason for him to staged a photograph, maybe it happened too fast and couldn’t capture the authentic photo and reacted what he saw, who really knows? In conclusion I do believe that authenticity matters because these are photographs of wars, people deserve to know the truth and facts that are happening during the war, not something they want people to see or think.

Well, I think that clandestine photography sometimes is the best way of getting the most spectacular and unique photographs because of the unexpected things that can happen when shooting a photograph. Having this said, I think that Evan’s clandestine approach to photography was smart/dumb at the same time because of the risks he could have gotten himself into. However, I admire the his willingness and bravery to do something that at that time it was probably forbidden by the law for photographers to do such a thing. While looking at some of his photographs, I realized that little has change between the people of that time with the people of today, in that there are many similarities between the things that people did back then with the things people do now. Many of Evan’s photographs are a lot like today in that people still do the same things. For instance, there are people looking sideways, others closing their eyes, others reading newspapers, others uninterested on what’s happening, while others curious about the people in the train or the advertising.

Even though it’s has been many years since Evan took these photographs, still everything is quite the same except for the technology (iphones/ipads) that has had a strong impact in our lives. I think that as long as we continue to live in this city and use the train as our medium of transportation, everything will remain the same because taking the train can be boring sometimes while it’s always full of people that tend to behave just as the photographs taken by Evan many decades ago.

I think that both types of photography (Frank’s art and Count’s photography) are powerful and effective. Frank’s art is all about showing certain parts of the United States to the people in ways never been seen or portrayed before. Frank had different ideologies of capturing images than the rest of photographers. He was more about experimenting with photographs and bringing out real facts (Racial Segregation, poverty) with his photographs from different parts of the coutry that caused him a lot controversy and criticism for showing the photographs never seen before to the world and to authorities that tried to stay away from this subject matter. Even though Frank’s photographs were scrutinized for all the media and adversaries of his work, he showed the real truth behind the so called “American Dream” that most people were not aware of.

Count’s photography shows a more detailed analysis of his work about Racial Segregation. In his article, he describes the exact moment when he photographed Elizabeth Eckford who was being shouted all kinds of racial words because of the color of her skin by her classmates, mainly by Hazel Bryan who was antagonist and main character along with Elizabeth of this photograph. Count explains how his photograph was a crucial event that affected the lives of the two people mentioned above. Additionally, he also describes all the pain that this moment caused for Elizabeth and Hazel in their lives and that even though several years have passed, it’s difficult for them to reconcile and leave this moment in their past. I think that both photographers Frank and Count had powerful visual photographs and that both of them tried to show the exact moments in which something extraordinary was taking place.

A war always brings disasters for all the innocent people that suffers the consequences from both sides (rivals) fighting over certain disagreements. As an example, people from Israel (Gaza City) have been the most affected by this war. While seeing Tyler Hicks’s photographs about the war in Israel, I realized the seriousness and the pain that hundreds of people are going through each day when they lose their family members, houses and freedom. His photographs are shocking and very powerful carrying a strong message for those who live in other countries and what to know everything about the war. Hicks is very good at capturing the most critical events of the war. His way of taking photographs is very unique and special that shows that this war is not only affecting Israel but its people as well.

Hicks’s experiences while covering different wars throughout this life as a journalist, have thought him that a photographer needs to have a full understanding of the subject he is about to write about and the ability to express what it’s happening in such a way that the description of the photograph is mainly describing what is happening and nothing else. I think that some of his photograph descriptions are informative, whereas other photographs lack more information about the description of the photograph. However, I think that being a photographer is not an easy task and that few people like Hicks are willing to cover this kind of wars, for the fear of losing their lives, while doing their job.

In this world, it is difficult to find such practices and belief those people do underground. We have in Brooklyn, a lot of people do voodoo. As a Haitian guy, it is true. In Haiti, they perform a lot of those and its different part of the country. Taggart documentary on voodoo, take a lot of resource to find this type of belief and the things those people do. People do usually take pictures of such thing like voodoo. This is the first time of seeing those kinds of pictures. Those picture seen valuable because, it let the world know what’s going on around them and what kind of activity that are being performed underground. The pictures look evil and you could see the effect it have on the people that are being possess by the voodoo.

Hurricane sandy left a lot of people homeless. Having the hurricane take away your own is very hard to handle. House’s been destroys, and also tress were down. People around zone A, B, C were the one who felt the impact more. Water coming inside people house raising to a distance they never seen before a hurricane had done. I was not affected by the hurricane sandy, but my heart and prayers go out to them. Where I live is nowhere near dangerous areas. A couple blocks down from my building, a lot of trees were down, and the tree came out with sidewalk. The fake pictures that were showing around the Internet seen to be interesting, but it wasn’t the right time to these picture. People lost there live in this hurricane sandy storm and its very foolish to this type of pictures. While watching the news, I knew what photograph was real and fake. Seeing the pictures said enough and one to do is provide help and give out to the Red Cross for support.

His images are mostly on what going in on around the world. Even though taking this photograph, people won’t see it as photography. Because it doesn’t see the person is at war. What he trying to tell us is, that what happen in a real war, people fighting for their country freedom. He gives us an insight of what’s going on. It may be real, or not but describing the true to us a great joy. This is a soldier risking their life for their friend and family. When I first saw the photograph, I said to myself” that’s a stage photograph”. II did have critique about the photograph. But after a while I realize he wants us to see something that we can’t have access to.